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Topic: What to expect when it's too cold (Read 707 times)

I have 5 gals of ESB that I made a few days ago and I ended up under pitching it slightly due to poor planning (2 WLP 007 vials that were within date but not fresh, about 2-3 months old). OG was 1.045.The beer is sitting in my fruit cellar but it's been so darn cold that it's about 60 F in there. I normally ferment all my ales in there because it stays fairly cool, even in summer but it's gotten so cold that it's way below norm.

The beer is very sluggish, slight bubbles on top but no real krausen after a couple days. I know that it will work it's way through the sugars but it's gonna take a lot longer than I'd like. Any idea what sort of flavours I can be expecting by the colder sluggish fermentation?

Edit: I should mention that I cooled the wort down to probably 40F, maybe a bit less. Pitched the yeast directly from the fridge so both were very cold to start with. I then moved the beer into the warmer area (relatively speaking). At this time of year, I often cool with a wort chiller down to about 70 or so and then put the sanitized lid back on my kettle and just leave the wort overnight in the garage with a window open. It gets pretty cold that way and then I can siphon off very clear wort the next morning.

I have found that cooler means cleaner but under pitching can increase esters (along with all the other issues). I'd expect it to take longer than normal, maybe under attenuated at the end, and maybe the same esters you normally get or slightly more.

Thanks. I switched to 007 because I had 002 stall twice. I will rouse tonight. This started cold and has warmed so I'm not sure it's as bad as it would be staring warm and then getting cold and then warming back up.